Indie Royale – Valentine’s Bundle Bonuses
The Indie Royale’s Valentine’s Bundle bonuses have now been unlocked!
They are: the Soulcaster I and II Remix Soundtrack, the Zeno Clash OST and the Lume mini-OST. As a extra special bonus, Soulcaster creator Ian Stocker has created the “Merchant’s Legendary Arrangements” mini-album!
All these bonuses can be downloaded from the redemption page. If you’ve lost your key, never fear – you can request a new email which will come with all the keys connected to your email address.
There’s just under two days left to pick up the Valentine’s Bundle! Here’s what’s in it, and here’s our quick impressions of the games.
A Virus Named TOM
A Virus Named TOM is an action puzzler by Misfits Attic, featuring the City of Tomorrow, filled with robot dogs and self-cleaning houses.. and a virus named TOM.
After using Dr X’s inventions to build the City of Tomorrow, MegaTech promptly fired him. However, Dr X had also invented TOM, a little virus which he now sets loose to destroy his creations! Spread the virus by rearranging circuits, but watch out for the anti-virus drones..
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge8wT6w2v0o]
There are also two multiplayer modes, for up to four people: co-op, and competitive.
The game is due for release in March, but you can pre-order now, for $5.. this is 50% off the final price, and gets you access to the beta now, along with an opportunity to get your highscore on the final game’s baked-in leaderboard.
Also.. if you pre-order before Valentines, you can grab yourself an extra copy for a loved one!
Obsidian to try Kickstarter?
Double Fine have found success with Kickstarter: the company’s fans have come forward to support them in making the game they want to make, rather than the game they want adjusted by the demands of a publisher. The donations so far have passed $1,600,000, and are still rising..
Obsidian, developer of Fallout: New Vegas have asked their fans what game they would like to see, if they were also to set up a project via Kickstarter.
The responses so far have been very supportive of the idea, and from the comments it appears fans would like to see an isometric RPG, with turn based combat and a good story.
Castle Story Developer Blog 1
Castle Story devs, Sauropod Studio, have posted their first weekly development blog, where they list some of the work they’ve done this week.
They’ve also taken on a new team member, and one of the existing two developers is quitting his job to work full-time on the game, which can only be good for development!
Steam Outage
The Steam services seem to be down this evening, with no reason or explanation given at this time.
A message from @Steam_Support on Twitter states that they are “investigating reported outages”, whilst a post by a community manager on the Steam forum noted that they are “working on getting everything running again as soon as possible”.
Update, 8.55pm: The Steam outage is down to a failure at Valve’s data centre. They are now working to get services restored as soon as possible.
Update, 9.25pm: Steam is starting to come back online now.
Mass Effect 3 – Demo Availability
The demo for BioWare‘s highly-anticipated action RPG Mass Effect 3 is planned for launch on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on February 14th.
Single-player will be available to all, and features two sections from the game: the opening level featuring the Reaper attack on Earth, and a level from later on in the game, where Shepard travels to an alien home world to request assistance in the war effort.
The co-op multiplayer demo is only available to those who have a an activated Battlefield 3 Online pass: this part of the demo opens up to everyone else on February 17th. This demo features two maps: Slum and Noveria.
Xbox 360 players can win codes to get early access to the demo via a Facebook app, or via Twitter giveaways such as this one.
Our impressions of the single-player demo can be found here.
Steam Hackers May Have Taken Credit Card Details
Valve have posted a new message from Gabe Newell about last year’s intrusion of the Steam forums.
During their investigation of last year’s intrusion, security experts have learned that the intruders may have obtained a copy of a backup file with information about Steam transactions between 2004 and 2008. This backup file contained user names, email addresses, encrypted billing addresses and encrypted credit card information, but not Steam passwords.
Valve are still investigating the incident.
The Indie Royale: The Valentine’s Bundle
Indie Royale’s The Valentine’s Bundle is now out, with five games, and bonus DLC! As usual the bundle is available on a pay what you want scheme, with a minimum price, although you can pay more to unlock the bonus, show your support, and knock down the price for others!
The games are: action fighting game Zeno Clash, by Ace Team, Hoard, a strategy game featuring dragons, by Big Sandwich Games Inc., adventure puzzle game Lume, by StateofPlay, and world premiere PC versions of retro RPG defense games Soulcaster and Soulcaster II, by MagicalTimeBean!
The bonus DLC in this bundle is for HOARD: Dynamite Roll!, which adds nine new maps and extra units, and Flame-Broiled SANDwich which adds a desert continent and remodelled buildings, units and terrain!
For those paying more than the current minimum, there’s also One Life Left’s music compilation, “Music To Play Games By Too“.
We looked at all the games in a bit more detail.. you can read it over here.
Blizzard appealing Valve’s use of the DOTA trademark
Blizzard are appealing against Valve’s use of the DOTA trademark, on the grounds that the trademark carries with it all the goodwill generated for the original DOTA mod and Warcraft III, which it was based on.
Valve are currently developing DOTA 2, which will be a standalone game available on Steam.
In the appeal, Blizzard argue that they supported the original DOTA mod, and that it was built using the Warcraft III engine, characters, items, spells, artwork and textures, and that Valve should therefore have no right to use the name.
Blizzard are currently developing their own version of DOTA: Blizzard DOTA, a custom game for StarCraft II.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx1JDEnrVK8]
Like other DOTA-style games, this is a team-based competitive game where each player controls a powerful hero with unique abilities, and must work with their teammates to invade the enemy’s base. More information is available in the DOTA FAQ.
Firefall Beta Starts Now
Firefall is a team-based shooter / MMO hybrid under development for the PC by Red 5 Studios; a studio founded by Mark Kern, former team lead for World of Warcraft. The game will be free-to-play once launched. To take part in the beta, sign up for an account: beta invites will be issued in waves.
The latest Dev Diary details how player actions will affect the roll out of new content in the game:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQrQWRiXFss]
The game is set in a future Earth, where the promise of a new clean energy source leads to the arrival of a hostile energy storm called the Melding, that engulfs most of the world. A bloodthirsty race known as The Chosen has also emerged and threatens humanity’s survival..
Players can choose from three battleframes: assault, medic and recon, each of which can be customised with different weapons and loadouts. These are equipped by the player’s character, so you can switch between battleframes too.
Firefall has both PvP objectives and cooperative PvE missions. PvP consists of Team Deathmatch, and a Sabotage game mode, which has teams take turns being on offense or defense, with three different points to capture and hold. Confirmed PvE missions so far include a Thumper mission, where players defend a mining machine against waves of enemy creatures while it gathers resources, and Rescue missions, for which no information has yet been released.
Firefall has no set release date; as players join the beta and play, the team collect feedback and continue development of the game, with plans for the game to be rolled out ‘organically’, rather like Google’s Gmail service.